


In the moonlight

by Lumentyttoe



Category: The Tribe (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28814259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumentyttoe/pseuds/Lumentyttoe
Summary: "And the rain fell upon the hut’s roof again, and on the outside, lightning was cutting through the night  once more, and here on the inside they sat, holding each other tight and hoped for the second time that it might be forever."
Relationships: Amber/Bray (The Tribe)
Kudos: 2





	In the moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> So...this is set after the end of "A new World", somewhere halway through "A new Dawn". Or maybe before that, I'm not so sure and it's not that important. Again: I translated this from German, so please forgive me if some expressions don't make sense.

Despite his best efforts to be quiet, she woke up as soon as he entered her hut, driven there by sleep-deprivation and longing. But it might as well have been the thunder that was breaking the silence of the night just in that instance, that woke her up. She sat straight up in her bed, of course, during her time with the Gaians she had learned that nightly noises mostly didn’t mean any good. He saw her picking something up from the floor instinctively and as soon as he noticed that it was a knife, he hurried to say:  
„It’s me!“  
Amber narrowed her eyes.  
„Bray?“  
Her breathy voice brought back memories of the few days in which his name, accompanied by a hushed „Good morning!“, had been the first thing she had said after waking up.  
„Did something happen?“ She put the knife back on the ground and sat up, while her eyes seemed to accustom to the darkness. Her head slightly tilted, she looked up to him.

The words he had planned out so carefully got stuck in his throat. The quiet sound of rain dripping onto the hut’s roof and the silver moonlight shining softly through the entrance, everything seemed to be exactly the same as it had been in the rebels’ camp. Even the silver-blue light in the room. But one important detail was different.  
“Bray?” The worries in her voice finally loosened his tongue.  
“I know that we have an agreement”, he started scrapping together what was left of his carefully picked words. “And you know that I tried to stick to that bargain as good as possible.” For a moment he tried to a find a hint in her facial expression about weather or not she agreed with him, but soon gave up on it again. “But...Amber…” Oh how much he wanted to run to her, leaving behind one of the days they had been separated with every step he took. Kneeling down next to her bed, taking her hands in his. But if he didn’t plan to stultify himself, he didn’t have a choice but to stay exactly where he was. “I…I need you.” How simple the truth was sometimes. “I have always needed you.” He didn’t care about his shaking hands, his way-too-fast-pounding heart. The words were the only thing that mattered, that she listened the only thing of importance. The pain caused by the lack of her reaction made it clear to him just how desperately he had hoped for an answer already. So he had to try something else. With a sigh he sat down on the floor.

  
“Do you remember, Amber when I said that it was the thought of seeing you, of touching you again that has kept me alive?” Her nodding encouraged him. “Back then I…I didn’t know how very real these words would some day become. While being Eloise’s prisoner, the thought of you has been the only thing preventing me from loosing my mind. But since I returned, things just…changed.” He ran a hand through his hair. “The fact of being so close to you like never before the past few months and still not being allowed to touch you, to be with you the way I imagined, it drains me. It kills me, Amber, I can’t bear this anymore! And yes, I know that you still need time and I’m happy to give it to you, but…this…”, he pointed at the empty space between them helplessly, “This is something I can’t stand any longer. You’re the person I love, trust and respect like nobody else in this world. And nothing is ever going to change that. But Amber…I know you. I…” For a moment his voice broke, as if his tongue hesitated from forming the words, “I know that you made a decision long ago which you don’t dare to admit to yourself. So…let me make it easier for you.” He put a hand to his chest and got up on his feed again.

“I stand by my word that I’d stick to our bargain, no matter what you’re going to say right now. If you want me to stay, I stay. If you want me to leave, I leave. I’ll leave you alone for the rest of your life. Say ‘Bray, don’t you dare coming here ever again’ and I swear I’ll do everything within my power so that you can find happiness with Jay. But please, Amber, give me an answer.”  
The way she looked at him, cold fear in her gaze while he stood there in front of her, his knees shaking. He had hoped to feel relieve, now that he was finally that close to a final answer, but nothing like that happened. On the contrary, he felt sick, his heart was still racing. Outside, the thunder was still growling, and the cold made him shudder. The moments of silence seemed to stretch out into eternity, while he already began to regret his courage.

  
How could he have been so stupid to just show up here and catch her off-guard like this, without giving her a proper chance to think about it? In the middle of the night, that was?  
“Bray…” The word was barely more than a whisper in the silence but still, the way she said his name this time send a shiver down his spine. The good kind of shiver. Still, his stomach seemed to turn, his breathing became laboured, his mouth felt dry. Even during Eloise’s experiments, he had never felt so stressed out. “Don’t you dare…” Her voice broke and his heart stopped. That was it. He lost. She made her decision and she choose Jay, a life with a man that promised security, stability, something she seemed to need like nothing else after all the things that happened. Of course. And nonetheless he had been so naïve to believe that even after all this time, with everything that happened, their love would still be stronger everything else. “ _But isn’t it worse to pretend? To live a lie? I mean, what about love, Amber? Doesn’t that mean anything?_ ”

  
“Don’t you dare leaving me ever again.” Her words reached his ears without him totally understanding what they actually meant. He stared at her in disbelieve, unable to move, although every fibre within him urged him to start running, to rush to her, to finally really be with her. It was almost like back on the helicopter deck, when he had seen her for the first time since his abduction. But this time there was no bruised body holding him back and he trusted his senses more than enough to know that this was real. As soon as he realised that, he crossed the room, sat down on her bed and for the first time in such a long time, being close to her wasn’t bittersweet torture. He put one of his hands gently on her neck and kissed her, with as much passion and love like he had never kissed anyone before. He ran his fingers through her hair, that, without her characteristic Zulu-knots, was now falling down and gently stroked the strap of her nightdress down her shoulder, while kissing every inch of her body. He wanted to feel her, taste her and couldn’t remember when for the last time, something had felt so right in his life, like the soft touch of her fingers on his neck did.

She ended the kiss and for a few moments, she did nothing but to look at him. “I love you, Bray.” Seeing the tears stream down her face was wonderful and painful all at once. He kissed them gently from her cheeks, then he lifted his head and looked her directly in the eyes. “I love you too. More than anything else in this world.” She grabbed his hair with one hand while kissing him again, stroking his arms with her other one. “I swear I won’t forget that ever again.” Her breath tickled his ear but he was sure that this wasn’t the only thing that gave him goosebumps. She pulled away from him, just to sit down in his lap moments later, and for a brief moment he couldn’t really believe, that she really was that close to him. And the rain fell upon the hut’s roof again, and on the outside, lightning was cutting through the night once more, and here on the inside they sat, holding each other tight and hoped for the second time that it might be forever.

If Ram himself had jumped into the room right now and offered Bray the possibility to live in this very moment forever, he would have happily agreed. The weight of Amber’s body upon his arm just felt right, her presence as good as nothing else. He bowed down to kiss her head that was lying upon his chest while he stroked her arm. Everything was fine.  
As if having read his thoughts, she just lifted her head and looked at him. “This time we’ll make it.” She sounded as convinced as he felt. “I just know it.” A smile formed around his lips. “So I won’t dare to contradict you”, he murmured. When she slapped his shoulder, he inhaled sharply. Amber looked at him, worried. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t think of it!”, she said. “Did I hurt you?” He quickly shook his head, wanting to put her off, but Amber had already started to examine his shoulder, where the white scare was visible upon the skin. For a split second the look on her face became worried but before he could say anything she bowed down. She kissed the scar unbelievably gently. It was the leftover of a cannula Eloise had used to take blood from him whenever she was convinced of needing it. Sometimes he caught himself thinking about what happened to her. If the Zootists really believed her lie about having his child. But this situation was not one he wanted to think of the leader of the next cult that cherished his brother.

“You are not going to tell me, are you?” Amber didn’t look at him while her fingers stroke the scar almost without touching his skin.  
“What exactly?”, he wondered, “I did tell all of you everything about my capture.” She looked up.  
“What you had to do to escape. I knew from the start that what you told us by the fire wasn’t the whole truth. I saw it in your eyes.”  
Ofcourse she had. But maybe, a part of him had really hoped, that one of the many side-effects of his capture, of all the torture could have been that he wasn’t so much of an open book to her anymore. And at the same time there was nothing he had been so afraid of.  
“It doesn’t matter”, he tried to reassure her, “It’s over. In the past. But this, Amber, you and me, that’s the present. And the future.” Her gorgeous smile seemed to make him dizzy for a moment.  
“Future…”, she murmured, interlacing her fingers with his, “Did you know that most of the last years, the word scared me to death? That I always felt like it was linked to uncertainty? And the pressure, that it always had to be the best future possible? For years I spent all my energy into creating a better future for all of us. And lately I came to the conclusion…”, she could herself off and swallowed, “That I failed.”  
He shook his head. “Please don’t think this way. Just look at what you achieved!”, he said firmly. But he simply couldn’t believe the slow nod she gave him for an answer.  
“And what…”, her voice broke, so she had to start again. “What about those things I didn’t achieve?” Suddenly, every muscle in his body seemed to tense, his throat to dry out. Would this be the moment, when she finally told him about it? After all these weeks in which she had asked for his patience when it came to that subject? Oh how much harder it had been to grant it to her, as it had been with the question, who she would pick as a companion. If the uncertainty about the situation between Jay, Amber and himself had drained him, not knowing about what happened after he had left the barn, had nearly made him loose his mind. Maybe he had convinced himself that it would be easier to accept if he knew about it. Maybe he had hoped to get rid of the feelings of guilt. But in this moment he knew one thing for sure: He wanted her to share the pain he saw in her eyes. “Amber, it…”  
She swallowed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…”, she didn’t finish the sentence.  
“Amber, you can always…”, he tried again.  
“No”, she cut him off, “No I can’t.”  
A lump formed in his throat. And even if his dream of everything between them being fine at once had just busted like a bubble, he didn’t mean to give up hope. “It’s alright”, he said silently.  
“Is ist?” He nodded.  
“Of course.” Oh how much he wished he could have believed himself. But her whispered “Thank you”, that was so full of relieve reassured him again, that he had made the right choice.

“I really don’t mean to throw you out…”, Amber said at some point and he laughed at the realisation that she was about to do just that. “But…dawn’s coming soon. And if Jay sees you coming out of here…” If he was honest, he had just liked to shrug her worries off and tell her that it really didn’t matter anymore. But he knew Amber too well, so he went with feeling the weight of her body in his arms once again, enjoying her company. Then he sat up carefully, picking up his clothes from the floor beneath Ambers bed.  
“When are you going to tell him?”, he asked, not putting much effort into hiding how much he cared about the information. “First thing tomorrow. I owe it to him to do it in person. And alone.” Bray nodded sympathetically, he could imagine all too well that he would have wanted things to be the exact same way if he had been in his rival’s place.  
“And after that you’re coming straight to me and we can finally start catching up on everything that we missed?”, he asked, his eyebrows lifted in a playfull-suggestive way. A bright smile appeared on Amber’s face. “Well…”, she said teasingly, “Tomorrow afternoon is the meeting with Lia and the Priestess because of the hints Ram made. I’d like to get this over with first.” He shook his head laughing. “Well…it doesn’t make much sense to contradict you on something you have already decided to do”, he admitted and Amber winked. “Good thing you didn’t forget about that”, she replied and put a hand on his shoulder. In the meantime, he had put all of his clothes back on. “How could I possibly? It was one of the things that impressed me the most about you”, he confessed, before bowing down one last time to kiss her.

Than he rose from the bed, enjoying how Amber let her hand slide down his arm until she could put her hand in his, in an attempt to literally keep in touch with him as long as possible. When he took the first step away from her bed, her hand slipped out of his. Shortly before leaving the hut he turned around again. The moonlight was shining weakly into the room, it was still raining on the outside and the lightnings were still lightening up the sky and for one moment everything really seemed like being exactly like it had been back in the rebel’s camp. But this time was going to be whole lot different.


End file.
